


Wishful Dreaming

by Mythica



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Episode 100, F/M, Speculation, Spoilers, episode 5x08
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-17
Updated: 2016-11-17
Packaged: 2018-08-31 11:08:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8576032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mythica/pseuds/Mythica
Summary: What is Oliver's deepest wish?





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is a speculation based on the episode description for Arrow's 100th episode and the big 4-way crossover. If you don't want to be spoiled, DON'T READ IT! You've been warned. :)

Oliver awoke to bright sunlight streaming in from the open windows. He grimaced as he tried to open his eyes. His head was killing him. As he slowly managed to get his eyes open, he looked around the room, momentarily feeling disoriented. Something felt off. He just wasn’t sure what it was.

A loud knock on the door made him groan as he threw his arm over his face and turned into the soft pillow. When he heard the door open, he pulled the blanket higher up to try to hide his face. Whoever it was, they needed to leave.

“Oliver, that’s really quite enough.”

The sound of that voice made him startle as he pulled his arm down and opened his eyes, only to see his mother looking at him with a soft smile.

“Mom?”

“The wedding is only a few hours away,” she told him as she walked over to his closet. “I know Tommy kept you out late for your bachelor party, but you cannot be late to your own wedding.”

“Wedding?” Oliver sat up and looked around, recognizing his room in the Queen mansion. For some reason, it felt off to be there, but he didn’t understand why. It was his home. He should be there. Turning to his mother, he saw her pulling his tuxedo out of his closet and hanging it near the bathroom.

“I knew I shouldn’t have let you and Tommy go out,” she sighed. “You always seem to over do it. The last thing you want today is bloodshot eyes in your wedding photos.”

“Right… photos.”

Moira looked at her son in concern as she walked over to see him rubbing his hands on his face. “Are you feeling alright, sweetheart?” Putting her hand on his head, she gently ran her hand along his hair.

Oliver sighed as he pulled his hands down and looked up with a smile. Reaching up to take her hand, he gently squeezed it. “Yeah… I’m fine. I guess I just… over did it last night.”

“Well, you better make sure Laurel doesn’t know,” Moira scolded. “You know how she feels about you drinking too much.”

Oliver frowned as he looked down at his hands. Laurel. He was marrying Laurel. He knew that, right?

“I’ll have Raisa bring you up some coffee and breakfast,” Moira explained as she headed for the door. “I suggest you get up and start getting ready before it gets too late.”

Oliver nodded as he watched his mother leave his room and close the door. Looking around, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was just… off. As he pushed off his covers, he slid his feet to the ground and stood up only to lose his balance and fall back onto the bed. His head felt like it was going to explode. Rubbing his temples, he tried to make the pain go away, but he knew it was probably useless. He had had bad hangovers before, but this one was a doozy. Getting up more slowly this time, he steadied himself on the headboard before finally starting to take steps. Taking a deep breath, he slowly made his way to his bathroom. Maybe a hot shower would help.

>>>\-------->

Felicity knew she shouldn’t bite her nails. Her mother always told her that it was a bad habit and it would ruin a perfectly good polish job, but right now, she was nervous and when she was nervous, she bites her nails.

It had been two days. Two days since he had been attacked. She still couldn’t wrap her brain around it. Aliens? She thought she had seen everything, but this? This was just… insane! Then Barry showed up with another alien, but she at least looked human. The whole flying thing was a bit of a surprise, but after seeing what these other aliens could do, Felicity knew they could use all of the help they could get.

“Hey.”

Felicity turned around to see John walking into the room. She pulled her hand from her mouth and gave him a small smile before turning her attention back to the man lying in front of her. Two days he had been there, just looking like he was asleep. The medical machines told her that he was still alive, but his brain was way too active for being unconscious. Whatever that alien had done to him was making his mind act like he was still awake. It was like intense dreaming. Of what, she didn’t know.

“How’s he doing?” John asked as he pulled up a chair beside her.

“No change,” she replied, straightening her back to stretch it out. She had been sitting in that chair for too long, but she didn’t want to leave him. “It just looks like he’s dreaming.”

“With Oliver, somehow I doubt they are good dreams,” John observed.

“I don’t know,” Felicity replied, looking at the monitor showing his brain waves. “He seems calm enough. Barry said these… aliens… get into your mind and give you what you’ve always wanted. It makes you… content and then you won’t fight back.”

“So, what does Oliver want?” John asked, looking cautiously at Felicity.

She just looked down at Oliver before reaching out to grip his hand. “A family. His family. He would tell me about what it was like with his family before the island. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but… it always lit up his face when he talked about it.”

“If he has his parents back…” John let out a sigh and shook his head. “He might not ever want to wake up.”

Felicity felt a tear slide down her face as she gripped Oliver’s hand a little tighter. “I know.”

>>>\-------->

Oliver finished tying his bowtie as he looked into the mirror. This was it! He was getting married. Taking a deep breath, he looked at his reflection as he smoothed his hands down his jacket. He thought he would be more nervous, but the feeling he had wasn’t nerves at all. He still had the nasty headache and everything just seem a bit… off. Maybe it was just nerves that was making him feel that way. What else could it be?

A knock on the door got his attention as he called out a soft, “Come in.” As he turned to the door, a smile came over his face as Tommy Merlyn walked through, smiling brightly.

“Hey, buddy!” he called as he closed the door behind him. “How’re you doing?”

“Good,” Oliver replied, buttoning his jacket.

“Not too nervous?” Tommy teased as he walked over to the mirror to inspect his own tuxedo. “Cuz if you’re nervous, it might be a sign.”

“A sign?” Oliver replied, looking at his friend strangely.

Tommy turned and gave Oliver a big grin. “A sign that you’re not ready to be off the market yet. I mean, think about it,” he said as he wrapped his arm around Oliver’s shoulders. “Think of all of those women out there that have yet to meet you. You’re denying them your charm by getting married.”

Oliver just smiled as he let Tommy lead him to the door. “Ah, but you realize, now there will be double the women for you.”

Tommy paused as Oliver looked over at him. “You make a valid point, my friend.” As he started walking again, he had a little more force in his gait. “Let’s get you hitched!”

>>>\-------->

When she felt a hand on her shoulder, Felicity jumped, picking her head up from where she had laid it next to Oliver. She hadn’t realized she had fallen asleep, but it didn’t surprise her. She hadn’t gotten much sleep over the past couple of days.

“Sorry,” Barry told her as she looked up at him in surprise.

“No, it’s ok,” she told him, straightening up and twisting her neck to work out the kinks. “Did you find out anything?”

“Not a lot,” he replied as he looked at his unconscious friend.

“What?” Felicity prodded. When he wasn’t forthcoming, she tried to urge him on. “Barry, I have to do something. What do you know?”

“Kara was able to translate a bit of the data that the Legends brought back with them from the future,” he explained. “She said that the only way to fight off this control is for the dreamer to realize it’s not real. Once they can do that, they can fight them off and come out of it.”

“So, Oliver has to realize something is wrong,” Felicity surmised. Looking back down at Oliver, she let out a sigh. “But if he’s happy where he is…”

“Then there’s nothing that can bring him out of it.”

Felicity just nodded as she looked down at him. Getting up from her chair, she leaned down and gently pressed a kiss onto his cheek. “Please come back to us,” she whispered. “We need you here. I need you.”

>>>\-------->

Oliver took in a breath as he folded his hands in front of him. The music was playing. It was time to start. Looking over at Tommy standing by his side, he gave him a grin as he tried to settle himself. Was it nerves? It didn’t feel like it. Something was just… wrong. When the door in the back of the room opened and he saw Laurel standing there next to her father in a gorgeous white dress, he felt his breath catch in his throat. She had a veil over her face, obscuring most of what he would see in a few minutes, but even under the translucent material, he could see her smile. As Laurel and Detective Lance started walking towards him, he tried to keep his eyes on them, but a flurry of color caught his attention. Looking to where the guests were seated, he saw a woman in a brightly colored pink dress. Something about the dress looked familiar, but he couldn’t place where he had seen it. A sound of a child brought his attention to another part of the room where he saw a woman holding a small boy. She had blond hair that was pulled back into a neat ponytail. Did Laurel ever wear her hair like that? Someone coughing got his attention again as he saw a woman with bi-colored square rimmed glasses looking down at a tablet in her lap. Why should that feel so familiar?

Oliver closed his eyes and brought his hand up to his forehead as he felt himself get light headed. Something wasn’t right.

“Hey, you ok buddy?” Tommy asked, putting his hand on Oliver’s back.

“I… I don’t know,” he replied, pulling his hand down just as Detective Lance and Laurel approached. Oliver took the hand held out by the detective as he shook it warmly before turning to his smiling bride. Reaching over to her, he gripped the bottom of her veil and lifted it, letting out a soft gasp when he saw who was under it.

“Felicity…”

Felicity smiled back at him just as she had when he had asked her to marry him. Wait… what? Looking around the room, Oliver finally realized what was off. He was suppose to be marrying Laurel, but he wasn’t in love with her. This wasn’t his life. Looking to where his parents were seated, he saw the concerned looks on their faces, but he knew, deep down, they shouldn’t even be there.

“Come back to me.”

Oliver turned back to Felicity when he heard her voice. When she reached up and gently touched his face, it felt like electricity was running through him. Oliver could feel his heart racing in his chest as he brought his hand up to cover hers.

“Felicity, I… I don’t…”

“Please come back to me,” she repeated as a tear slid down her face. “I need you.”

Oliver squeezed his eyes shut tightly as he held her hand to his face. This was wrong. This life was wrong. He had to get back to her. He had to get back to the woman he loves.

Opening his eyes again, he reached over and cupped her face, pulling her towards him as he brought his lips to hers. As soon as they touched, the pain in his head intensified as he pulled away, pushing his hands onto his temples as he dropped to the floor.

“Oliver?”

He could hear the concern in her voice, but something sounded different. The background noise was no longer the sounds of a wedding, but instead the beeping of a heart monitor. As he slowly opened his eyes, he felt the headache starting up again as the bright lights temporarily blinded him.

“Turn the lights down!”

Once the lighting was dimmed, he was able to finally open his eyes, taking in where he was. He was in a hospital bed, but not in a hospital. Looking around a little more, he could see that the Star Labs logos were on everything around him. Central City. Barry… Cisco… aliens.

A gentle squeeze of his hand brought his attention to the side of the bed where he saw a very happy Felicity sitting, the evidence of tears all over her face.

“Felicity?”

Felicity let out a nervous laugh as she squeezed his hand again. “Yeah… You had us really scared there,” she told him as her voice shook.

Oliver cleared his throat as he looked around the room. John was there along with Caitlin and Cisco. “How long?” he asked horsely.

“Two days,” Caitlin replied as she walked over to check his vitals. “How are you feeling?”

Oliver groaned as he looked around the room. “Groggy. Like I slept for… two days.”

“We weren’t sure you were going to come out of it,” John told him as he patted his friend’s leg. “They said that these aliens make you see what your fondest wish is.”

Oliver grunted as he nodded slightly. “I saw my parents,” he admitted. “I never went on the Gambit. Tommy was…” Oliver let out sigh as he brought his free hand up to rub his eyes. “It was very real.”

“They said the only way to break out of it was to realize it wasn’t real,” Cisco explained. “How did you do it if it felt so real?”

Oliver looked over at Felicity who was just looking down at him with a small smile on her face. “They didn’t get everything right.”

Caitlin crossed her arms in front of her as she gave them a knowing smile. “And what did they get wrong?”

Oliver just squeezed Felicity’s hand before turning back to John. “Where are we with these aliens?”

“Barry and Kara are still gathering intel,” John explained. “Sara and Ray are going through Gideon’s archives to see if there is anything about them in the Time Master’s database.”

“Good.” Looking around at everyone just staring at him, he frowned as he pulled the covers off and started to sit up only to be stopped by Caitlin’s hand.

“Where do you think you’re going?” she asked as he looked up at her.

“We have some aliens to deal with,” he explained as he swung his legs off of the bed. “I’ve been out for too long.”

“You’ve been out for two days,” Caitlin correct, “and I need to do some more tests to make sure there’s no after effects of what they did to you.”

“I’m fine,” he reassured her as he tried to get up, but this time it wasn’t just Caitlin trying to keep him down as Felicity also put her hands on his chest.

“You are notoriously bad at self diagnosis,” she told him as he let out a huff. “Let Caitlin run her tests. Then you can go… fight… aliens.” Felicity grimaced as she said the words. “That still just doesn’t sound right.”

Oliver looked up at her and had to let out a small laugh. Before he realized what he was doing, he reached up and put his hand on her cheek, rubbing his thumb across the lines from her tears. Felicity startled a little, but then leaned into his hand ever so slightly.

“Please,” she pleaded. “Just a few more minutes.”

Turning back to Caitlin, Oliver dropped his hand and let out a defeated sigh before swinging his legs back onto the bed and lying back down.

“I’ll just…” 

Felicity took a couple of steps back as she indicated with her thumb to the open door behind her. As she turned around to walk away, she was stopped by Oliver’s soft, “Felicity?” Turning back to him, she saw him giving her a look she hadn’t seen in quite some time.

“Thank you.”

“For what?” she asked, feeling a little nervous.

“Everything.”

Felicity gave him a smile that lit up her entire face before turning and walking out the door. Oliver just watched her as she left and he couldn’t help but think what his life would have been like if Felicity hadn’t been in it. He had always wished that he hadn’t been stranded on that island, hadn’t had to become a killer to survive. Now though he realized, if it wasn’t for the Gambit and everything that had happened, he would have never met Felicity. He couldn’t even imagine a life without her in it. The aliens got it wrong. He didn’t wish for a life without the Gambit accident. He wished for a life with her and one day, if they survived this alien invasion, he would make his wish come true.


End file.
